Mc205s shot down by Bf109s

[Brian]

Hi guys

On 29 April 1944 two ANR pilots were killed when JG77 mistook their C205s for Spitfires.

Do we have any details? Names? Location?

Cheers
Brian

[Brian Bines]

Brian from some notes I had S.Ten Luigi Bandini a 5 vic. ace falling to JG77 over San Paolo, and Mllo. Pietro Salvatico falling to JG77 over Macerata Feltria. The JG77 history by Dr. Prien indicates II/JG77 as being involved. Hopefully one of our Italian friends can confirm the spellings and give more details,

Regards

Brian Bines

[Brian]

Excellent, Brian

You are also on my Christmas card list!

Cheers
Brian

[RolandF]

Might have been Veltros wearing the striped brown/green "herringbone" camouflage.
Incidents like that have been the reason why the German RLM 74/75/76 camo system was introduced for the ANR, too.

Regards

Roland

[veltro]

Originally Posted by RolandF

Might have been Veltros wearing the striped brown/green "herringbone" camouflage.
Incidents like that have been the reason why the German RLM 74/75/76 camo system was introduced for the ANR, too.

I would be much more cautious with such conclusions...

As a matter of fact the RLM camouflage was officially applied to the C.205s of 1° Gruppo since March 1944.

Also, the "herringbone" camo was a factory made finish applied only to the C.205s of "Serie VI" of which only a handful was produced from May 1944...

Thus, I would be much more prone to believe that it simply was a wrong ID and communication problem, with the German fighters finding other aircraft in a place and time where they expected only enemy fighters.

Misunderstandings with radio communications and between Italians and Germans were not uncommon, although this was the most glaring example.

[RolandF]

Grazie, Ferdinando,

per la tua gentilezza di rispondere - and for your point of view.
Yes, problems with language and different radio equipment certainly may be the reason for misidentifying an object.
On the other hand, II./JG 77 had their own experiences with the Veltro, flying it in the final months of '43, but featuring the old RA "smoke-ring" camo.
So JG 77 ought to have experiences with a correct identification of their targets. This does not exclude young, inexperienced Luftwaffe pilots performing such mistakes. Do we know the M.M.s of the MC.205s to get an impression which camo might have been applied?

What I wanted to say is, that any green/brown camo of this time might have been regarded as hostile by the LW pilots.

Regards

Roland

[Laurent Rizzotti]

This link has other crash places for these two Italian losses, but confirms the pilots and the German unit:
http://www.aereiperduti.net/anni/1944.php

You can find some more details there (in Italian...):
http://www.alireggiane.com/t258-coma...riano-visconti

Best regards

Laurent